24 Hours Of Le Mans: Qualifying Gets Rolling In France

By Cycle News Staff | 9/19/2013 11:56 AM

The first qualifying session for the 24 Hours of Le Mans is in the books from France with the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (SERT) on top of the timesheets thanks to the fast lap turned in by Julien Da Costa.

Da Costa put the GSX-R1000-mounted team on top with his 1:37.258. Da Costa is teaming with Vincent Phillippe and Alex Cudlin for the 24 hour.

SERT, the reigning World Endurance Champion team, was chased hard during the session by Team SRC Kawasaki’s Fabien Foret with Foret’s ZX-10R team ending up second fastest. Foret is joined on the SRC team by Gregory Leblanc and Axel Maurin.

The BMW Motorrad France team, featuring American Jake Zemke, ended up fourth fastest – one spot better than the Monster Energy Yamaha team for whom Josh Hayes is riding for. Hayes is joined on the team by Broc Parkes and Igor Jerman.

Hayes, in his first trip to Le Mans, ended up the fastest rider on his team with a 1:38.842. Zemke lapped at 1:40.821 for his BMW team.

The other two Americans in the race are Jason Pridmore and James Rispoli, the two riding for Penz13.com, the BMW-mounted Superstock team that is currently leading the Supertock title chase. Penz13.com ended the day 20th overall and sixth in class.